Ex-pastor arrested for murder of girl nearly 50 years ago
July 25 (UPI) -- Authorities in Pennsylvania arrested an 83-year-old former pastor for the murder of an 8-year-old girl who was killed nearly 50 years ago.
The suspect, David Zandstra of Marietta, Georgia, was arrested July 17 by Cobb County police officers to whom he confessed to killing Gretchen Harrington in August of 1975, in Pennsylvania's Marple Township, which is located in Delaware County just outside of Philadelphia, authorities said Monday.
Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer announced in a statement that Zandstra has been charged with criminal homicide, kidnapping of a minor, possession of an instrument of crime and first-, second- and third-degree murder.
"Gretchen is now in peace. Her perpetrator is going to be brought to justice," Stollsteimer told reporters during a brief press conference Monday.
"We are going to bring him here to Delaware county, we're going to try him, we're going to convict him, he's going to die in jail -- And then he's going to have to find out what the God he professes to believe in holds for those who are this evil to our children."
Stollsteimer said Zandstra is fighting extradition, but the county is seeking a governor's warrant.
According to the Delaware County District Attorney's Office, Harrington was last seen walking the morning of Aug. 15, 1975, to her summer bible camp, which was held at two churches in Marple -- the Trinity Church Chapel Christian Reformed Church where Zandstra worked and the Reformed Presbyterian Church where her father worked, also as a pastor.
When she failed to arrive later that morning to the Reformed church, Harrington's father became concerned and Zandstra called police.
The girl's skeletal remains were found two months later on Oct. 14, 1975, within the Ridley Creek State Park.
Zandstra was interviewed by police that month, but the case went quiet and then cold until early this year when investigators interviewed a woman who was best friends with Zandstra's.
The woman told investigators that as a child she would spend the night at Zandstra's house and that during one sleepover when she was 10 years old she was awakened in the night to find the suspect groping her groin, the Delaware County District Attorney's Office said.
When she told Zandstra's daughter about the incident, the girl replied that her father "did that sometimes," the statement continued.
The unidentified woman had also noted in her 1975 diary that she believed Zandstra was likely responsible for two attempts to kidnap a child in her class.
After prosecutors confronted Zandstra with the new evidence in July, he admitted to the crime, the district attorney's office said.
The district attorney's office said the defendant allegedly admitted to seeing Harrington walking to church the morning that she went missing, that he offered her a ride and took her to a nearby wooded area where he attempted to undress the girl, who refused.
The district attorney's office said he then allegedly admitted to hitting her in the head and, believing that she was dead, attempted to cover her body before leaving the area.
Trooper Trey Eugene Tray told reporters that when Zandstra confessed it was like "a weight was lifted off his shoulders.
"It was extraordinary to see," Tray said. "He was a different person. Even when he was told he was going to be placed under arrest that day, he was okay with it. He was just resigned to this is my fate, I guess. I don't know if he's sorry for what he did, but it was a weight off his shoulders, for sure."
A DNA sample was collected from Zandstra to be compared to other open cases in the state and across the country as law enforcement is concerned that he may have more victims.
In a statement provided to media, the Harrington family said they are "grateful" for the continued pursuit of justice by the law enforcement agencies involved in the arrest of Zandstra.
"The abduction and murder of Gretchen has forever altered our family and we miss her every single day," it said.
